High-Protein Spinach and Cheese Egg Muffins
I’ve been trying my best to deliver on your request for more high-protein breakfast meal prep ideas from my Instagram DMs and these egg muffins are one of my favorite options! These Spinach & Cheese Egg Muffins have a similar texture to the Starbucks egg bites, which I do love, because you blend up your eggs with cottage cheese, and they’re a great low carb option if you’re looking for that. You could definitely personalize these to be any flavor you’d like, but the spinach and cheese are always a hit in my house! This recipe is featured in my “How to Make Perfect Egg Muffins” newsletter from April 2026.
high-protein spinach and cheese egg bite ingredient notes:
Eggs: The obvious star of the show! Eggs are our main source of protein here and when blended with the cottage cheese, makes the fluffiest little egg muffins! Don’t be afraid to fill the muffin tins right to the top, the mixture will rise and fall once taken out of the oven. Check out the rest of my egg muffin tips below!
Spinach: Providing this dish with some plant-powered iron and antioxidants, spinach also provides a pop of color in each egg bite. Using just 1 1/3 cups, these are perfect to make when you know you have a bag of spinach in the back of your fridge about to go bad!
Cottage Cheese: Our sneaky high-protein addition to these egg bites is cottage cheese! Packed with protein and adding a creamy smoothness to the egg mixture, cottage cheese will kickstart your morning, keep you full longer, and is gut healthy.
Cheddar Cheese: Using two different types of cheese in this recipe really adds to the depth of the cheesy flavor. The key is crisping up the edges just enough to get that perfect toasty top and ooey-gooey center.
egg muffin Pro tips:
Don’t overblend: Once the egg mixture is blended smooth, don’t continue blending. You want to limit the amount of air bubbles in the mixture.
Strain the mixture: After you’ve blended, strain the eggs through a fine-mesh sieve into a separate vessel. This optional extra step helps remove any air bubbles that resulted from blending.
Invest in a good muffin pan: I won’t lie to you— a reliable nonstick muffin pan can be life-changing. I personally love my nonstick ceramic muffin pan, which can cost more, but you won’t need to buy liners and your egg muffins won’t get stuck in the pan (no waste!). If you don’t have one, greased silicone muffin liners work, but avoid basic parchment liners— they tend to warp and leave you with funky- shaped muffins once they cool down.
Fill to the top and don’t overbake: Make sure you’re filling each muffin well to the top, until they are just about full, so the cook time is appropriate. This prevents overbaking; overcooked egg muffins can get spongy or rubbery. You know they are done when you shake the muffin tin and the centers of each muffin jiggle.
Try a water bath: This one little step makes a huge difference! Before you preheat the oven, fill a baking dish halfway with water and place it on the bottom rack to heat up while you preheat. The water bath will steam the muffins and create the fluffiest eggs.
Don’t heat the oven too high: 325°F is the max temperature I’d suggest for egg muffins. You want the eggs to cook slowly, so if your oven tends to run hot, cut back to 300°F. The muffins will rise as they bake and then deflate back down slightly, which is normal!
HIGH-PROTEIN SPINACH AND CHEESE EGG MUFFINS
6
servings10
minutes30
minutesI’ve been trying my best to deliver on your request for more high-protein breakfast meal prep ideas from my Instagram DMs and these egg muffins are one of my favorite options! These Spinach & Cheese Egg Muffins have a similar texture to the Starbucks egg bites, which I do love, because you blend up your eggs with cottage cheese, and they’re a great low carb option if you’re looking for that. You could definitely personalize these to be any flavor you’d like, but the spinach and cheese are always a hit in my house! This recipe is featured in my “How to Make Perfect Egg Muffins” newsletter from April 2026.
Keep the screen of your device on
Ingredients
oil for the pan as needed
10 large eggs
1 1/2 cups 4% milk-fat small-curd cottage cheese
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
1 1/3 cups baby spinach, finely chopped (about 1 ounce)
1 cup shredded cheddar cheese
Directions
- Preheat oven to 325ºF. Lightly oil a 12-muffin pan. If you do not have a non-stick muffin tin, you can also use silicone muffin liners.
- In a blender, combine the eggs, cottage cheese, garlic, ground black pepper, and salt and blend on high until smooth, about 30 seconds. Evenly distribute the spinach and cheddar cheese in the bottom of the muffin cups, then fill each to the top with the egg muffin base.
- Bake until the tops are golden brown and a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean, 25 to 30 minutes. Let cool in the pan completely, about 15 minutes. The muffins will deflate slightly as they cool.
- Once cooled, use a small spatula to remove the muffins from the pan.
Notes
- Store it: Refrigerate in a sealed container for up to 3 days or freeze for up to 3 months.
- Reheat it: To reheat from the refrigerator, microwave until warm, 45 to 60 seconds. Alternatively, bake or air- fry at 325°F for 4 to 6 minutes. To reheat from the freezer, microwave in 30-second increments until warm. For better results, defrost for at least 8 hours in the refrigerator first.
- Serving size: This recipe yields 12 egg muffins total and one serving = 2 muffins.
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Can I half the egg bite recipe? Makes way too many for just two of us
These were tasty but stuck to my muffin pan so much! I let them cool completely and still lost about half of each muffin stuck in the pan.
These are PERFECTION! Especially when your protein needs are higher than usual. You can make all kinds of variations just by using the base. Great freeze and reheat too!
I have about two minutes for breakfast on a good day. I meal prepped these and they were amazing. I stayed full and they were super duper tasty. Easy to make but they did stick to my muffin tin. I will make again!
Made these this week, they were delicious, and my partner loved them! Do you happen to know how much protein would be in each muffin? Thank you!
After I imported into MyFitnessPal app: I made it 20 servings
Calories 61
Total Fat 3.3 g
Saturated 1.3 g
Cholesterol 96.9 mg
Sodium 327.3 mg
Total Carbohydrates 1.8 g
Dietary Fiber 0.1 g
Sugar 0.5 g
Protein 5.9
These are so good! I made them in mini muffin tins and baked for 15 minutes. They didn’t stick at all for me.
Either use liners or silicone muffin pans. I recently switched to silicone and it’s a game changer! 😃
Do you have to coat the silicone with anything before putting in the mixture?
You can lightly spray with an oil if you like, but a good silicone mold shouldn’t need anything!
Very tasty and easy to sub in toppings!
Tip: Once they are done cooking turn the oven off and leave them in the oven to cool completely. This helps them release from the pan easily and prevents them from shrinking.
Is there a good cottage cheese alternative? Our fam is DF.
I swapped in 6oz of firm tofu and it worked perfectly! And I’m not a tofu fan!
I just made these and the texture turned out perfect. Hands down my favorite egg bite recipe. I used a silicone muffin tin and just greased it with butter and had zero sticking issues.
Yum!!!! These are delicious! Thank you!! I will be making these again to fill up the freeze! delicious
These are wonderful make them weekly easy grab and go for breakfast or a quick protein snack . Keep making great easy recipes love them.
I used silicone muffin “tins” and these were perfection! I did increase the recipe by 1/2 again (so 15 eggs, etc) so I could use an entire tub of cottage cheese. I was really happy how they turned out, and I’ll definitely be making them again!
Mine caved in *and* stuck terribly in a metal “no stick” (not really) pan sprayed with tons of olive oil.. I couldn’t turn off the oven and let them cool in there bc I needed the oven, so I set them on top of the oven where it stays pretty hot. They taste good though. I was thinking of getting a silicon muffin pan anyway, maybe that would help.
Absolutely loved these and can’t wait to try the feta version!
i wish there were serving sizes and calories per serving with your recipes! I love this one!! I am just trying to figure out portion sizes and the nutrition info would be super helpful (:
These stuck to my metal muffin tin, too. Since then, I have made them in a 9×13 baking dish and just cut into squares when cool. Very yummy!
This is a great alternative! So glad you’re loving them
I just made 24 of these for breakfasts on a long road trip. I tried one and they taste great! But there’s so much salt in the 2 cheeses that I think I will cut back the added salt to 1/2 tsp next time. I used parchment cupcake liners from Michaels and they worked like a charm–fell right out, no sticking. Thanks for your great recipe and I can’t wait to try other variations when I get back.
I made these for the first time today tasted very good. I even added a little onion in there. I do believe that the half a teaspoon of salt and garlic powder was a little too much. I think I will try just adding a fourth of a teaspoon of each. Mine did not stick and came out beautiful.
I made these for the first time today they are delicious. I did add a little onion to mine. The 1/2 teaspoon of salt garlic powder was a little too much so I’m going to try just a fourth of a teaspoon mine did not stick to my muffin pan at all. They looked beautiful.
I have mini , regular and large sized silicone cups. I want to use the regular size and the large size. Can you please tell me what temperature and how long for each size? Thank you, Laura
Delicious! I cooked in an 8×11 glass dish and cut into 12 squares. I don’t have time for muffin pans, lol. Turned out great!
What would be the egg white version (how many egg whites)? I’m counting macros and egg yolks take up too many fat grams.